so i’ve spent a few hours listening to uplift spice and it’s given me some good feelings. i guess their most famous song(?) is omega rhythm and that’s how i got into them so i’ll link it here:
despite about five years of improv/composition and a passable-to-decent background in music theory, this is probably still the medium i’m least capable of formulating any kind of critical thoughts about: i’m really firing on all cylinders when i go beyond “i like this/i don’t like this.” e.g. i can’t come up with a concrete reason uplift spice is better than the glut of 2000s trashy “alt”-rock i don’t care about, but i’m sure there’s something behind it.
I still think INU’s Meshi Kuu Na blazes
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Obligatory Sambomaster rec
Obligatory Zazen Boys rec
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Immediately thought of this when I listened to the song in the OP.
As far as general j-rock, I love Bloodthirsty Butchers.
If you don’t have j-skillz a browser extension like Rikaichan can help transliterate names for you.
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hmm, i don’t get much of an emotional through-line from zazen boys stuff
yeah this is some real good shit
Bloodthirsty Butchers have tons of albums over 20+ years. Hisako Tabuchi joined in the mid aughts for nice duets and dueling guitars. Drop me a PM if you need help finding their stuff.
listening to ling tosite sigure - just a moment right now
i thought i couldn’t enjoy straight-up scream vocals but I Was Wrong, this album has been using them in a pretty thoughtful way. the constant switches between rhythms/instrumentation/tone in every song are engaging and surprisingly cathartic
edit: “a over die” is phenomenal, wow
edit 2: yeah this whole album is great and i’m gonna have to listen to it a couple more times tonight
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i only know zazen boys and not very well at that, but i <3 <3 <3 this song
it makes me emotional but that has a lot to do w/ the strong memories i associate w/ the song & album. it also just has a flaming hot bass solo
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oh yeah i like this. it’s closer to chillwave than the more active, intense stuff i’m digging for at the moment, but it’s good regardless
Did someone say Yoshida Ichiro??
This is the fucking jam.
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I generally don’t listen to music to “emotionally connect,” although sometimes it happens. Mostly I like some funky ass beats.
You want sambomasters first three albums yeah.
There is X-Japan who I think are pretty great and then a billion Visual Kei bands that to this day are chasing that high. Even X-Japan is after the songwriter commited suicide. I listen to ska and punk and even I think all that shit sounds exactly the same.
The Blue Hearts are untouchable. The High-Lows have some pretty good songs and The Cro-Magnons keep making solid unremarkable music.
Rin toshite tsugure flipped from being underground to mainstream at some point which baffles me because they sound exactly the same.
The through line in this post is if a Japanese band makes more than three albums they will just continue to make that third album until they quit.
Melt Banana has a really long career that is intimidating but their recent album Fletch is pretty great.
Without looking up youtube here are other bands on my ipod right now: toddle, akaikane, nyautanyauta, boris, BP., for tracy hyde, gingnangboyz, inu, jacks, kimonos, looprider, nuxx, oreskaband, o’summer vacation, princess princess, puffyshoes, ringo sheena, satalite young, sugarhill downtown orcestra, kamaboiler
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wait do you mean “j-rock” as an analogue to “j-pop” as the particular shape of musical ethos consolated in the mid-90s/early aughts or just rock music that happens to be from japan in general? i mean not that it matters all that much but hey.
anyhow no one in this thread said the One True Answer that is number girl. i’m disappointed.
hey seven listen to number girl, they are the flagship of all that is tasteful rock music over the last eighteen years. maybe i shouldn’t say these things; it’s a topic that gets me pumped from thinking/talking about (i have a large essay on my personal diary full of words about them and the bands generated by the members after the disbanding).
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their first album (“school girl bye bye”) is the most “blue-skies and freedom” they ever got.
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“school girl distortional addict” is the most famous; every song is single-worthy and it mixes heavyness and playfulness masterfully(most of their songs kiind of do it, but not quite to this extent). it’s number-girl-soup.
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“sappukei” is maybe the toughest (as exemplified by hisako tabuchi’s performance here) . it also hints to some in-development weirdness started in the previous album.
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“NUM-HEAVYMETALLIC” is the weirder/pop-ier one. i love it.
but uhm more to what you were asking: if you like ling-toshite shigure and uplift spice you’ll probably have a grand time listening to vola & the oriental machine, toddle (both being number girl’s daughters, mind you) and bokutachi no iru tokoro.
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Yes.
i dunno, just A moment was phenomenal but still a sigure virgin didn’t do it for me the same way. that’s a pretty small sample size though so idk
i remember tim talking about the blue hearts at some point and that’s the extent of my exposure to them
anyway i guess i’ve got a lot of homework now, huh? looking forward to it ^~^
Number girl has never comnected with me and I have been trying for 8 years.
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Number Girl is potential realized in the bands formed afterwards IMO. Toddle is the best of the blue skies and Zazen Boys is the best of the weird. The only Number Girl song where I feel both in harmony is “Kuromegachina Shoujo.”
@Rudie probably has the scoop on jagged English-language rock. He repped Summer Vacation like five years ago and it’s still in heavy rotation.
I introduced Summer Vacation to O’Summer Vacation and feel pretty good about that.
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tell me about more albums with emotional female vocals over fast drums and electric guitars. japanese is optional, but uplift spice and ling tosite sigure are both relevant and i didn’t want to make a new thread
i have simple tastes and this is what i want in my life at the moment
also damn tibyz, i forgot how much boris shreds, it’s great. i’ve only listened to Mabuta no Ura but i should try some more of their stuff